Belltown crime: 54 people, 2,700 arrests

Mayor credits police, wants to find why system is broken

By CASEY MCNERTHNEY, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Updated 11:42 pm, Monday, October 17, 2011

Members of Belltown Citizens On Patrol walk through an alley in the Belltown neighborhood on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011.

Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO

Members of Belltown Citizens On Patrol walk through an alley in the...

Matt Hale, center, recieves a standing ovation from supporters at the Belltown Community Safety Meeting, a gathering held in his honor at the neighborhood's Labor Temple, Aug. 31, 2011. Hale nearly died after being attacked and robbed for $10.

Photo: JOE DYER

Matt Hale, center, recieves a standing ovation from supporters at...

Wanted suspects in the Aug. 3 attack on Matt Hale, a Belltown condominium concierge. Anyone with information is asked to call Seattle police at (206) 684-5535.

Photo: Seattle Police Department

Wanted suspects in the Aug. 3 attack on Matt Hale, a Belltown...

One of the suspects in the Aug. 3 attack on Matt Hale, a Belltown condominium concierge. Anyone with information is asked to call Seattle police at (206) 684-5535.

Photo: Seattle Police Department

One of the suspects in the Aug. 3 attack on Matt Hale, a Belltown...

Wanted suspects in the Aug. 3 attack on Matt Hale, a Belltown condominium concierge. Anyone with information is asked to call Seattle police at (206) 684-5535.

Seattle police have identified 54 people frequently seen in Belltown who have been arrested more than 2,700 times – and Mayor Mike McGinn wants to figure out why crimes keep happening there.

The list was created in late August by two officers who regularly patrol Belltown, and it was shared with fellow West Precinct officers the same week when Matt Hale – the 68-year-old concierge who was nearly killed by a gang of attackers for $10 – returned home.

The officers did not specifically try to find criminals, but people whom they consistently see on the streets of Belltown. The list was first publicly discussed by Lt. Eric Sano, who briefly mentioned it at an Aug. 31 reception for Hale at the Belltown Labor Temple.

On the list of 54 people, at least two have been convicted of murder, according to police.

McGinn spoke about the list and the officers who created it this week on the Seattle Channel, but did not have updated statistics. McGinn said police have identified 50 people arrested 2,500 times, but police documents obtained by seattlepi.com show the list has 54 people arrested 2,704 times. The arrest number also includes what police call criminal reported contacts.

The list also includes rapists, robbers and child molesters, according to police documents. Others arrested had felony convictions including robbery, assault, drug possession, forgery and theft.

McGinn failed to note that several people on the police list have arrests from outside Washington that are not part of the 2,704. At least one of those listed has killed a man in another state, according to police.

"This is not a problem of having sufficient officers down there to arrest people," McGinn said. "If it was a matter of arrests, we would have solved this a couple thousand arrests ago. So, the challenge here is what's really going on."

The mayor said he has put together a team that includes the city's human services department, housing officials and representatives from Seattle Municipal Court to find what's broken and identify solutions.

But police familiar with Belltown say the problem is bigger than that.

The majority of the 54 people with lengthy arrest records live in those Belltown housing projects, according to police documents. Police familiar with the problems say some of those housing areas – including the Bell Tower, run by the Seattle Housing Authority – are havens for crack use, and that follow-through by some staff members at the facilities is severely lacking.

Authorities have said many offenders have already had their Department of Corrections supervision time cut short by SB 5891. The bill was signed June 15. Read more here.

Statistics for the 54 people on the Belltown list show another trend: They were convicted in less than a third of the cases for which they were arrested.

Some of the arrests are for probation violations. In general, if a suspect is arrested and enrolled in Seattle's Mental Health Court or Community Court, charges are dismissed after the program's completion. King County Drug Court also dismisses charges against people who successfully complete requirements.

The 54 Belltowners who have 2,704 arrests or criminal contacts have 877 convictions collectively, according to police documents. That includes 266 felonies, 138 gross misdemeanors and 285 cases that are unclassified.

"Think of the amount of dollars we are spending processing people through a system without actually resolving the underlying problem," McGinn said on the Seattle Channel. "I want to give credit to our police department and our police officers for coming up with this approach because that hasn't been done before."